E-Paper
CBI takes custody of TMC leader’s brother in Bengal cattle smuggling case
Vikas was arrested earlier by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and named in the agency’s first chargesheet in August last year. He was already in ED’s custody when the CBI prayed for his arrest at the special court in Durgapur.
Vikas Mishra, brother of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Vinay Mishra, was sent to the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by a special court in Bengal’s West Burdwan district on Friday in connection with the cattle smuggling case, CBI officials said. Vikas has been accused of money laundering.
Vikas was arrested earlier by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and named in the agency’s first chargesheet in August last year. He was already in ED’s custody when the CBI prayed for his arrest at the special court in Durgapur. He was remanded in custody till April 18.
On Wednesday, TMC’s Birbhum district unit president Anubrata Mondal was admitted to the state-run SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, days after the Calcutta high court dismissed his petition for relief from arrest by the CBI in the cattle smuggling case.
On March 16, a special CBI court at Asansol in West Burdwan district issued an arrest warrant in the coal smuggling case against TMC’s former youth front general secretary and businessman Vinay Mishra. He renounced his Indian citizenship in December 2020 and became a citizen of Vanuatu, a small island country in the south-west Pacific.
The CBI has named Vinay as a prime accused in the cattle and coal smuggling cases that the ED is also probing.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and his wife have been summoned by the ED several times in the coal smuggling case.
CBI officials said that in order to execute the arrest warrant against Vinay the agency will have to initiate extradition talks with the Vanuatu government. India has an extradition treaty with the Republic of Vanuatu.
Several state police officers and officers of the Border Security Force (BSF) and Customs department are suspects in the cattle smuggling case which was registered by the CBI in 2018. Two BSF officers and a state police inspector have been arrested so far.
According to the CBI’s first information report (FIR), cattle seized by the BSF were undervalued and auctioned with the help of some customs officers so that traders could buy these at very low prices and legally sell them again in Bangladesh. Part of the sale proceeds allegedly went to some TMC leaders and government officers.
